A water pipe is a filtration and cooling device used in conjunction with smoking various types of smoking material. A user places a small quantity of the smoking material in a bowl removably mounted on the exposed end of a down stem which is installed through the wall of a water compartment of the water pipe into a quantity of water therein. Typically, the bottom of the water compartment is shaped to support the water pipe upright on a support surface.
To employ the water pipe, a user places her or his lips within the circular end of a top mouthpiece on a tubular stem extending upright from the water compartment. Concurrently, as the user steadies the water pipe with one hand, the other hand is used to tilt a lighter in front of the bowl and actuate the lighter to produce a flame while the user inhales air from the smoke chamber of the tubular stem to draw the flame into the bowl to ignite the smoking material and also create a partial vacuum in the smoke chamber above the water in the water compartment.
The partial vacuum must be sufficient to not only ignite the smoking material but also to draw the smoke through the downstem, up through the water in the water compartment and into the smoke chamber of the tubular stem leading to the top mouthpiece. Once enough smoke to be inhaled has accumulated in the smoke chamber of the tubular stem, the user removes the bowl from the downstem and inhales the smoke from the smoke chamber.
Most often, a conventional pocket fluid cigarette lighter, easily actuated to produce a flame, is the type that is used. In a group session, typically the water pipe along with the pocket lighter, provided by one of participant for temporary use by the group, are passed together from person to person. However, occasionally, the lighter becomes separated from the water pipe. The lighter is misplaced or even stolen and thus not returned to the owner.
Accessories have been proposed to hold the lighter on the water pipe so that it is passed with the water pipe and only removed from and returned to the water pipe by the one person using the water pipe. Various accessories of this type, such as proposed in US Pub. No. 2012/0012732, appear to be over-engineered for the purpose intended or overly cumbersome to be used effectively on the part of some users.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for an innovation that will overcome the deficiencies of past approaches and the problems that remain unsolved.